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Of course you’ve all heard about the 4-Hour Workweek by now. Tim Ferris’ runaway best seller and internet phenomenon is one of the most talked about books of the last twelve months. My 4 Hour Workweek chronicles my progress in using the ideas in this book to streamline my own life and move closer to my ideal lifestyle.

In Part 1 of this series, I shared how I streamlined tasks in my personal life and automated in several places. In Part 2 I discussed alternatives to hiring a Virtual Assistant. In this installment, I’ll address using the 4-Hour Workweek at home.

One of the overarching purposes of applying the 4-Hour Workweek is to reduce the amount of time you spend on tasks that aren’t important or interesting so that you can focus on activities that enrich your life in some way. This is really important to keep in mind when trying to streamline things at home. As Cindy explained in her awesome guest post, The Business of Family Living, there are definite limits to what most people want to eliminate and automate. For example, I don’t think most of us want to outsource our relationships!

In my quest to apply the 4-Hour Workweek to my personal life, I’ve tried to keep this idea in mind. I don’t want to become super-efficient at the expense of activities I enjoy, but I don’t want to keep doing tasks just because I’ve always done them. I have also been trying the weight costs vs. benefits and not spending more to streamline a task than my (or my SO’s) hourly wage.

Now, in a perfect world, I would just go out and buy myself a robot maid like Rosie from The Jetsons. Then, my laundry would always be done, my kitchen would be clean, and I would have a sandwich waiting for me when I got home from work. Unfortunately, technology has not yet brought us flying cars or the automatic shower conveyor belt (actually, that one didn’t look so fun ;)), so I’ve had to find other ways to adapt. In a nutshell, I’ve analyzed a lot of tasks and broken them up by:

• What to Batch
• What to Do Immediately, and
• What to Outsource

The main guideline I used to analyze what task goes where is: What will take me the least amount of time, while maintaining my quality of life? So, if it won’t take any more time to leave something for batching and won’t drive me insane (like leaving dirty laundry piled on my floor), I’ll batch it. If delaying will take more time or cost more money in the end, such as ignoring a household repair, I do it immediately. If it takes me too long, I don’t know how to do it, or I can get someone else to do it cheaply, I outsource it. Here’s some more detail on each.

What to Batch

There are a lot of tasks that take a lot less time to do when they are grouped together in batches. Most of these take special equipment, a lot of concentration, or involve the use of machinery that operates more efficiently when full. Some of the tasks that I batch are:

• Bill paying. I have a few bills I can’t pay automatically through my bank account or with my credit card. All of these wait until the last week of the month when I write the few physical checks I use.
• Laundry washing and drying. Pretty much everyone knows that washing full loads of laundry is more efficient than doing partial loads. For me, washing laundry every other weekend works pretty well. If you have kids or a really small wardrobe, you may need to do laundry more frequently, but try to not do so every day or every two days. You can’t “work ahead” in this area!
• Cooking. On Sundays I usually cook lunch for the entire week. One week I may make something in the crock pot, another week I’ll make chili or soup. Also, I eat a lot of rice, so I make enough rice for a week. For most recipes, making a double or triple batch doesn’t take any extra time and it can save 30-60 minutes on another night.
• Shopping. Buying in bulk saves time and often saves money. As much as possible, buy large quantities of non-perishable and frozen groceries as well as other household staples like soap, cleaning supplies, and paper products. If you can catch these items on sale, so much the better, but don’t spend a lot of time bargain shopping. Instead, find a store or two that has competitive prices on lots of items and don’t worry about the $5 you might have saved by visiting three stores over the course of 2 hours. You can also apply this strategy to buying clothes. For example, if you need t-shirts, find some that you like and buy 5. Then you won’t need anymore t-shirts for 6 months or a year. Fewer trips to the store saves time and saves you from impulse shopping.

What to Do Immediately

• Write things down. This may seem a little too GTD for all you hard core 4HWW’s, but writing down lists, ideas and to-dos immediately saves a lot of mental RAM and a lot of stress down the line. Of course, there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel, which is why I use templates whenever possible for lists. Here is a free Microsoft Excel template that I customized and use as a grocery list. Click on the picture to download this one and a lot more.

• Laundry sorting. Seriously, don’t leave your laundry lying in a heap on the floor. At the very least get a big hamper to store it in. Even better, get some sorting bins to keep in your closet or wherever you store your clothes. That way you can handle the sorting in one step when you are changing out of dirty clothes. It’s more efficient and makes life a little more pleasant.
• Loading/Unloading the dishwasher. One of the keys to keep dishes from clogging up your kitchen is to put dirty dishes in the dishwasher as soon as you are done using them. When the dishes are clean, put them away as soon as possible after they are dry. This keeps the dishwasher available for storage. One of these days I hope to upgrade to a slick 2-drawer dishwasher system, but for now I’m using what I have efficiently.
• Home repairs. A little leak can turn into a flood. A funny ozone smell can be coming from a bad wire that is about to spark. Unless you know what you’re doing, I highly recommend you outsource this (see below), but do it quickly. This is one area a VA can help out tremendously.
• Wiping up spills and small messes. I do have a house cleaner, but I don’t just let goo pile up during the two weeks between her visits. I’ve found that it’s easiest to clean up spilled ingredients, potted plant dirt, and toothpaste if you get it quickly. Having a sponge or some cleaning wipes handy helps a ton to keep this a quick job. I also own a rechargeable vacuum sweeper that is a lot quicker to use than the big vacuum cleaner.

What to Outsource

• Anything that can FLOOD or BURN DOWN your house. If you are a plumber or electrician, you can ignore this. Most of us are not, and we shouldn’t even try to fix the major systems in our houses without adult supervision. In addition to pipes and wires, this applies to things like appliances, lawnmowers, telephone lines, and HVAC systems. Use your best judgement, but an ill informed DIY project can get really expensive, really fast. My approach is to befriend qualified people who do some work on the side. This saves money over hiring a company and over me fouling things up!
• Grocery shopping. Okay, I don’t do this one (yet). However, if you live in an area that has Peapod or a similar service, you might consider it for your weekly produce purchases and other things that can’t be bought in bulk. You could also try an online service like Amazon Grocery for some staples. If these fail, the best solution is probably to find a student or other low-cost worker who can run your errands for you. I’m not at that point, but plan to be soon.
• Time consuming, boring things. A couple of years ago SO and I had to pressure wash and reseal our deck. This isn’t hard, but damn is it boring! There are lots of fun tasks like this that come with owning a home: cleaning gutters, washing exterior windows, mulching, lawn winterizing - the list is endless. Either move to an apartment where you don’t have to worry about stuff like that, or find someone who can do this for you. It will save you hours of time and probably a sore back - and maybe your relationship
• Cleaning. I already do this one. If the idea of having someone else clean your toilets just grosses you out, try it just once. It may change your life!

What to NOT Streamline

• Anything you TRULY ENJOY or get VALUE from. The whole point of applying the 4HWW methodology is to free up your time to focus on what you LIKE to do and what you GROW from doing. If you really like playing video games - go for it. If you ENJOY cooking huge, elaborate meals, do it. Anything I’ve listed above can be a hobby as well as a chore.
• Time with your friends and family. We can joke about outsourcing our lives, but I personally don’t have any desire to make my interactions with my friends and family “more efficient.” As much as possible I try to stay away from group emails, or voicemail messages if my goal is to connect and not just exchange data.

Everyone’s home situation is different and it’s impossible to recommend universal solutions to create more efficiency at home. If you’ve found other solutions that work for you, please share them with us in the comments.

Related posts:

1. My 4-Hour Workweek: A Series
2. My 4 Hour Workweek: I Get My VAs For Free
3. My 4-Hour Workweek Revisited: A "Real" VA Speaks Out